E-Cigarette reviews for the rest of us

Halo Tracer Review

It’s no secret that a lot of e-cigarette users are buying mechanical mods these days — and why not? Mechanical mods are cheap. They’re small. They often look great — and practically nothing on a mechanical mod is prone to breaking. Mechanical mods also have no controls to fiddle with. If you want to change something about the device’s vapor production, you can just change the tank or atomizer.

There’s just one problem: e-cigarette explosions can and do happen in the hands of the inexperienced — and when an e-cigarette does explode in the user’s hand, it’s often a mechanical mod. That’s because mechanical mods don’t do anything to keep their users safe. If you wrap an atomizer coil incorrectly or use a damaged or over-discharged battery, you risk the possibility of injury. There’s even a remote possibility of injury if you use an off-the-shelf tank with pre-built coils, because even machine-made coils aren’t immune to shorts and battery counterfeiting is rampant.

The Halo Tracer is a device that combines the simplicity and small package of a mechanical mod with the some of the safety features that you’d expect to see in a regulated device. It has just one button and outputs the battery’s power directly to the atomizer coil, just as a mechanical mod would. At the same time, it doesn’t operate if a short circuit exists, the resistance of the coil is too low or the battery is over-discharged. So, you get the best of both worlds — and you get it at an attractive low price.

View the Tracer mod kit at the Halo website. The Halo Tracer costs $59.99 and includes a sub-ohm tank, two mouthpieces, two spare coils, a charging cable, a wall charger and a free 30 ml bottle of Halo e-liquid. Use the coupon code VAPE4LESS to save 5 percent on your purchase.

About the Halo Tracer

The Halo Tracer is a custom kit that’s exclusively available from Halo. The two primary components — the battery and the tank — are manufactured by other companies. The battery is the eGo ONE Mega battery from Joyetech, and the tank is the Horizon Arctic tank.

In many cases, when a company rebrands an off-the-shelf e-cigarette, they’ll pad the profit margin heavily and hope that customers don’t find out that a generic version of the device is also available. Halo hasn’t done that with the Tracer. Oh, you can find eGo ONE Mega kits for less, but you won’t find one in a package that includes the Horizon Arctic tank, a bottle of premium e-liquid and a whole bunch of other free stuff.

This kit from Central Vapors is a good example. It’s a great deal at $35, don’t get me wrong. However, it’s an eGo ONE Mini battery — 850 mAh instead of the 2,600 mAh of the Halo Tracer battery. It also doesn’t include e-liquid or a wall charger and includes the Joyetech eGo ONE tank rather than the Horizon Arctic tank. In my experience, the eGo ONE tank tends to leak and spray hot e-liquid on the tongue. I hope to review that tank in the future, but for now, suffice it to say that I don’t care for the eGo ONE tank at all. Central Vapors does carry the Horizon Arctic tank, but if you purchase that and the eGo ONE Mini kit, it’s $60.99. Halo’s deal looks terrific in comparison.

The Halo Tracer (Horizon Arctic) Tank

So, we’re all clear on the fact that the Halo Tracer tank is actually a rebranded Horizon Arctic tank. Going forward, I’m just going to refer to it as the Tracer tank. This is one of my absolute favorite all-purpose tanks, and I use it with great regularity because it has superb vapor production and airflow characteristics. It’s also a very popular tank, which means that I can get replacement coils locally when I don’t feel like waiting for shipping.

Halo sells coils for the Tracer tank at $13.50 for a pack of five, which is a much better price than I can get locally. It also seems to be about average for online prices, which means that Halo isn’t making a ton of profit here, either. What they’re really banking on is that new customers will try and love their e-liquids.

The coils are available in single-coil and dual-coil configurations. The Tracer tank really shines with the dual-coil configuration, and that’s what I recommend buying. If you should ever decide to use a different device, the Tracer tank has kanthal coils available that’ll work at up to 100 watts. Stainless steel and nickel coils are also available.

In my experience, the Tracer tank doesn’t leak. It also doesn’t spit hot e-liquid — my most common complaint with tanks that generate a high volume of vapor. The airflow is very free with the vents fully open, and Halo’s glass drip trip doesn’t transmit heat — something I also love.

Halo Tracer Review

Being essentially a mechanical mod with added safety features, the Halo Tracer is an exceptionally small device in relationship to its stellar battery life. It works as a pass-through device, allowing you to vape while charging. Alternatively, you can charge the Tracer from a wall outlet using a 1-amp charger. Halo includes a wall charger with the Tracer kit, so there’s no need to worry about over-charging the battery with the wrong charger. The battery capacity is sufficient for hours of vaping time, although you’ll get slightly less battery life if you use the Tracer with a dual-coil configuration as I recommend.

The Halo Tracer is utilitarian in design. It doesn’t have a display screen, but that doesn’t mean it can’t communicate its status on some level. If the battery has a 60 percent charge or better, the light under the fire button lights solidly during activation. When the battery is discharged further, the light will begin to blink. When the light blinks rapidly, it’s time to recharge.

The Tracer also feels quite solid to me. It’s built by Joyetech, one of the most prominent of the Chinese e-cigarette manufacturers. Joyetech has an excellent track record when it comes to quality control, and although I haven’t dropped my Tracer, I think you can be fairly confident in its ability to withstand heavy use.

Halo Tracer Review: The Bottom Line

The Halo Tracer is a package that offers plenty of value for the price. Not only has Halo wisely avoided padding the price of this package with the hope that customers will love their e-liquids and come back for more, but they’ve also swapped out the under-performing Joyetech eGo ONE tank with a much nicer one from Horizon — a tank that usually costs over $25 on its own.

With the Halo Tracer, you’ll also get two different types of drip tips — stainless and glass — so you can pick the one you prefer. The Tracer tank accommodates most drip tips, though. I actually prefer to use mine with the glass drip tip included with the Halo Reactor mod. In addition, you’ll get two different coils to try as well as a wall charger and a free 30 ml bottle of e-liquid. Halo’s e-liquid is some of the very best around, and full-sized bottles usually cost $19.99 each. With the Tracer, Halo has made something entirely unique out of the well-known eGo ONE platform. This device is an easy one to recommend.

View the Tracer mod kit at the Halo website. The Halo Tracer costs $59.99 and includes a sub-ohm tank, two mouthpieces, two spare coils, a charging cable, a wall charger and a free 30 ml bottle of Halo e-liquid. Use the coupon code VAPE4LESS to save 5 percent on your purchase.

Halo Tracer Review: The Pros

Great value; lots of items for the money

Pairs the trusted eGo ONE battery with a much better tank for a unique package you can’t find elsewhere

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About Vapegrl

Hi, I'm Vapegrl and this is my e-cigarette review website. I started e-smoking four years ago to rid myself of a nasty tobacco habit, and since then I've tried just about every e-cigarette and e-liquid I could find in the never-ending search for the perfect vape. Now I'd like to pass on some of the things I've learned. I hope you enjoy my e-cigarette reviews and guide.